The present invention relates to the field of firewood racks.
Various firewood racks are disclosed in the prior art for storing cut logs of firewood for use in fireplaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,207 to Baucom discloses a simple basic firewood rack design employing horizontal and vertical tubing elements that would be relatively unsturdy in use and would take up substantial space upon being packed and shipped. Other prior art designs employ fasteners for fastening the various shipped members together, which process can be a nuisance for the purchaser of the rack. This is particularly true for senior citizens and others who avoid use of any type of tool however simple. The use of tools also takes time and effort and ease of assembly is of paramount importance. The more components there are to assemble, the more confusing it can be for many people.
Prior designs call for the undesirable use of tools, after the components are shipped in reasonably sized containers, for assembly by the purchaser, and have other drawbacks as well. Firewood racks when assembled take up substantial space. See for example, Noll U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,413 and Visneski U.S. Pat. No. 3,021,011. The latter design calls for a rack supported on a wheeled platform employing fasteners for component assembly, and which could damage flooring when wheeled about and, in larger sizes, could be unstable.
Moran U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,063 discloses a relatively complex design calling for eight components to be assembled together, in contrast with only four components to be assembled in accordance with the present invention. Also, the rack uses six wooden beams or timers that makes it harder to assemble, particularly if the purchaser has to go to a lumber yard to obtain the wooden beams. Also the remaining two multi-component metal coupling members have eight original pieces that have to be welded together, increasing manufacturing cost.
Barnes, U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,073 doesn't appear to need fasteners to assemble his firewood rack, but it is more complex than the present invention because we are using four vertical tubes also as part of our connecting device to our two horizontal tubes. Production cost to make the rack of the claimed invention is lower as we only have to cut twelve pieces of standard hollow square tubing and make eight weld joints. Following the Barnes design, eighteen pieces of tubing would be required along with 16 welds. Furthermore, the male members at the ends of the horizontal Barnes tubes only slide into the receives 18 to a two inch depth so that any obstruction below his bottom two tubes that would raise them by only two inches, would allow the ends of the rack to fall over if placed under any load, because male members 22 would pop out of receives 18. Because our horizontal log supporting tubes slide completely down to our lower end-section cross-members, our simpler design would not have this drawback. Also, we do not employ his top horizontal tubes 16, which result in an unnecessary additional cost, and actually are in the way of any adjusting cover that allows air flow to the firewood.